Team Easton

Easton v. Jayhawks/Brewers/Ruff Ryders/ye fearful : Great way to finish off before the winter break. Don't get rusty, take this time to focus on one of your faults and work to get it perfected. We should have beaten the Jayhawks by 10 runs but instead we gave them 10 runs on 2 hits and a ton of walks. You did what as expected against the Brewers and you pounded the Ruff Ryders.  You did great against the "ye fearful" , they were an OK team that thought they were better than they really were. They were upset that they only scored 7 runs against a 10u team, good job!  

EASTON v. IE DODGERS:  Perfecting the Game!  Game 1, us 6 them 2. Game 2, us 3 them 4.  The first time I played this team was when we just started travel ball and they were our very first opponents. They beat us like a red headed step child , 25 -3, or something like that.  This weekend showed us how far we have come as a team. Good job. 

Easton v. Empire Baseball: Team Easton played a perfect 4 innings of ball last Sunday. Some great plays to remember; AJ while playing second, caught a ball behind first in foul territory and came up throwing to get the runner trying to score on a tag up from third.  We still need to work on our cut offs from outfield, ie, dont throw home when the runner is already there, rather, go after the runner trying  to stretch a double.  

Bo Boisvert has been called up to the major leagues and will be playing with 12u Manny's Squad. The trade includes 2 players to be named later who will play for Team Easton. We are proud of the tranformation that we saw in Bo.  

DON'T LET A VICTORY OR A LOSS ON THE BALL FIELD DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON. If we play a perfect ball game as still lose then I am satisfied with the coaching that I have done.  

11/7/08 Friday:  Great games, great catches in the outfield by Ethan and Cody. We made the routine infield plays, we executed our pick off plays, and we played all around good ball. Good pitching by Liam who only allowed 2 runs and Alex who only allowed 1 run, AJ, Ryan and Graham also did a good job on the mound.  

BACK TO FUNDAMENTALS: Easton returned back to the basics of baseball with all practices focused on catching, throwing, grounders, and fly balls. This seemed to work as we made the routine plays last Sunday against the Yucaipa Ruff Ryders. The Ruff Ryders are an established organization with good coaching which was evident by the plays that they made. Kudos to the kid in centerfield who threw out 2 runners at 1st base, he had an exceptional arm, and with the balls hit hard to him he made the plays at first base look rountine. 

Game one ended with Team Easton on top by a score of 6-5.  We were able to score 1 run to win in the bottom of the last inning.  In game 2 we were down 5-0 going into the top of the last inning. We score 9 runs to make it 9-5 and were able to hold onto the win with some good defensive plays.

What do we need to work on?  Better throws across the diamond from our infielders,  first basemen come off the bag to catch a ball, watch the 3-1 pick off, all in all 2 fundamentally sound games, good job guys.

EASTON drops two games in Downey:  

EASTON RUN OVER BY THE REDLANDS RAMPAGE:  We got be a dominant team with good players and good coaching.

PRACTICE 10/10:: we were a little flat with our mental game but we did seem to regain focus in the end. What did we do? rings/footwork, slide and pop, dive and pop, 60 plus grounders each,  GROUNDERS CHAMPIONSHIP, 10 plus deep fly balls each, timing the steal, come backers, pitcher cover first, middle infielder sprint to the base, opposite outfielder cover, bunt defense. We had our pick defense scheduled for practice but since we could not get the high percentage plays down we did not move onto the more difficult plays. Thanks to coaches, Gene, Keith, Ed, Juan.

PRACTICE 10/6;; if you were not at practice you missed 3 new plays that were introduced;  pick at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, ,,, what did we do?  rings, slide and pop, dive and up, wrist flips, point backs, form, 45,  live bunting, bunt defense, come backer,  delay pick at 1st, dog pile coach Keith, birthday cake.  THANKS TO COACHES;  ED, KEITH, and MARCEL  

TEAM EASTON HOST THE SO CAL REDBIRDS!  We had 2 great games by teams that were evenly matched, however, we still lost both games by a run or two.  What did we do good?  1st and 3rd offense, logan got in a great pickle, Alex scored from 3rd and logan advanced to 2nd.

What do we need to work on?  Pitchers need to practice on their own, batters need to get their own batting time in,  we need to make the routine plays, catch the ball, throw the ball,,, catch the ball,  throw the ball,  catch the ball, throw the ball. 

PRACTICE OF 10/4  :  We went over some basic concepts that had been introduced and executed at previous practices. The basic level of play requires that we be able to field the ball and make an out at the correct base, this requires minimal thinking, was the ball hit hard or soft, fumble or no fumble, speed of the runners on base and batter. The next few plays we need to know are ; pitcher cover 1st on ball hit to right side,  come backer to pitcher, check runner go one if runner has a small lead off of third, check runner FAKE to first , turn and throw to 3rd if the runner had a BIG lead at third,   we will now start it incorporate our delayed picks at 2nd and 1st. 

THANKS TO ED, GENE, KEITH AND MARK for your dedication at practice 

TEAM EASTON KEEPS PACE WITH THE BIG BOYS!  Great job! Manny's Squad  12U, hit the ball harder, pitched faster, hit their spots more often, and made the necessary defensive plays. We did the same thing but just on a smaller scale. We were able to get some runners on base a couple of times but then left them stranded, We did end up scoring a couple of runs in the last inning.

Our mental errors we minimal, the problem we did have is that we could not field the HARD hit balls, we had trouble with our glove to hand transitions and difficulties with the strike outs.  If you noticed, when their pitchers missed it was by inches, and when we missed our spots it was by almost a foot.

We did have some good catches in the outfield; a great catch on a pop up; some good stops on hard hit balls, a good save by the first baseman on a high throw,

Things to work on; more skill drills,  when to hold, or not to hold, a runner on base,  better lead  offs,

TEAM EASTON loses by 2 runs: Good job guys! What did we learn? runner on 2nd and catcher tries to pick you off - then delay steal on 3rd, be careful though, the catcher may try to deeec you with a throw to shortstop.   We had some physical errors that can only be fixed with more grounders and more fly balls....we need to be awake on the bases, we had a runner on 1st and 2nd with a deep ball hit to the outfield, they threw home for a play at the plate and our guy on 1st base just stood on 2nd base watching the play at the play,  you should have been at third as soon as the ball passed you..

Runner on 3rd,  at least make it difficult for the catcher to attempt a pick off, don't worry we will work this drill next practice,   but  lead off in foul territory,  as soon as it is caught by the catcher immediately jump INTO FAIR TERRITORY ..... you want to be in the way of the third baseman and in his THROWING ALLEY

RIGHT LEFT SET.............. every pitch

Our stealing STUNK!  we will practice this, after the set, right foot moves -back,  left foot moves - steal, most of our steals we waited until the pitcher had delivered the ball before we broke for the next base.

TEAM EASTON WINS AGAIN 10-3 !  Cograts again, we only had 2 mental mistakes last game. We played the Highland Little League "A" All Stars which had a very solid team. Their first pitcher had a little bit of heat but had problems with his control. He got us out 1,2,3 in the first inning but then we batted around the lineup in the second. 

           Although playing by LL rules was not my cup of tea it did have its benefits, ..... we had to hit the ball to advance our runners from station to station, good job guys. 

What do we need to work on? 

opposite side outfielder back up second base on the throw ( we missed this once),

catch the ball on an infield fly.... I know we just spent 30 minutes last practice focusing on just that drill.

catchers between all 3 of you we had 11 pass balls and/or pop out of glove last game on ball that should have been caught, as a team let's see if we can get it down to 3 total a game,

pitchers keep on practicing at home, good job.

everyone should be practicing batting on their own

SOME GOOD THINGS LAST GAME:

way to bunt,  good slide by at home, good shot to left field, good catch at first base on pop up, way to hit the ball

Team Easton loses to Empire Baseball !  Believe it or not, but we actually played a better game of baseball against that team. They had six mental errors and we only had 3. What did we learn from that game? Opposite outfield back up the throw to second; pitcher backup third; we need to do a better job on our cut offs;

TEAM EASTON OVERCOMES VENOM'S POISON!  Team Easton played a smart game against the Venom which is coached by former MLB pitcher Chad Zerbie who pitched in game #2 of the 2002 World Series while playing for the SF Giants, by the way he won his game that night.   We play them again this Sunday and you can bet that they will be out to beat us, so we need to stay focused on the  task at hand and concentrate on executing what we've been taught.  It seems that we saw their better pitchers as their 3rd or 4th pitchers, I bet they will start the game next time. We had some good base running that game, what I did see is that when we have a runner on 3rd and 1st, and we are stealing second, our runner needs to watch the ball the whole way just in case they throw down to second, if they do, then I want you to stop and get in a pickle which will allow our runner from third to score and ultimately you will be safe at second.

TEAM EASTON PLAYS WITH THE BIG BOYS!  Team Easton lost 3 games this weekend but walked away with their heads up high.  There is no need to mention what we need to work on because our mental mistakes were minimal and we can make those corrections during practice. 

What did we do right? right/left/set on almost every pitch, this included the outfielders as well:  we fielded the hard grounders: caught the fly balls: made the throws: all around we played good ball.

The OC Heat were all 12 year olds. The coach was amazed at how well we played for our age, remember, we have 5 players that are 9 y/o's : 2  ten y/o's: and 5 11 y/o's.  We stayed with them for 4 1/2 innings.  Now that we are playing at a 70 ft. base distance we will need to hit the ball harder. Physically the other teams were bigger and stronger, so how can we produce more runs?  UTM, huh? UP THE MIDDLE, we will start focusing on hitting the ball  up the middle, if the ball is hit hard UTM you have the best chance of making it on base safely.

HITTING: how did we do this weekend?  we faced some pretty good pitching this weekend, game 1 and 2 they threw hard, in fact, during game 2 they struck out 10 of our first 12 batters.  We got our sticks on the ball now we just need to hit it harder!

DEFENSIVE HIGHLIGHTS:

Cody: Pitched a solid 2 innings with a 50% strike ratio, fielded 3 grounders and dug out a bad throw to him.

AJ: Pitched a solid 3 innings with a 40% strike ratio, made web gem stop at ss, and threw out three runners on ground balls.

Alex: Fielded 3 grounders cleanly with a bad hop in the last game.

Kel: Pitched a solid 1 inning, 5 blocked balls behind the plate.

Ethan: A great job behind the plate with minimal pass balls.

Tristan: A solid inning of pitching, a good stop at ss and throw, and a caught fly ball.

Graham: 3 hard to handle fly balls caught in right, a solid inning of pitching, and no wild pitches.

Diego: caught a fly in the outfield, blocked 2 balls behind the plate, and had minimal pass balls.

Liam: 4 solid innings of pithing, 50% strike ratio, 5 clean grounder and throws.

Ryan: a good dig out on a bad throw, a good ground and throw.

Logan: injured reserve list

Bo: a couple of innings of solid pitching with a nice catch in right field on a fading line drive, and a nice grounder at 3rd .

OFFENSIVE HIGHLIGHTS:  we need more work.

TEAM EASTON WINS TWO IN RANCHO ! The first 2 games of the season resulted in Team Easton walking away with 2 wins.  The Rancho Bulldogs are a young 10u team that played well. Team Easton's bats came alive in the second game with 17 runs scored after only scoring 5 runs in game one.  Things we need to work on:

Batting Batting and more Batting! we should have pounded their pitchers.

Pitchers:  make sure  you get your practice in, hit your spots.

Think:  Everyone has a spot to move to when the ball is not hit to you. Anticipate the missed play, and the bad throws.

Baserunners: After the pitch - stay off of the bag until the pitcher gets the ball back in his glove.

Baserunning: after a pick off attempt GET UP and get ready to run on a bad throw.

Runner on 2nd and 3rd; they attempt a pick at 2nd;  3rd WAKE UP and steal home on the throw to 2nd

First base: cover first on a hard hit to right field and be ready for a throw from right field for the out.

3rd base: runners on  1st and 2nd and ball hit to you; just tag the base not the runner.

GAME 1 DETAILS: Cody started off the inning with a shot to the SS who made a good snag on the line drive for the first out. AJ followed up with a walk who ended up steal 2nd and 3rd. Alex was put out by a line drive to 1st, followed by a ground out by Kel to end the inning.

The 2nd inning did not produce much either; Ethan grounded out to 1st, followed by Tristan's pop up to the pitcher for the first 2 outs of the inning. Graham came up and hit  a shot line drive to the 8-9 gap for a single, this was followed by Diego's single in the 5-6 hole with the last out by Liam with a deep fly ball caught by the center fielder.

Our bats woke up in the 3rd with a lead off single by Ryan, a walk by Logan, and Cody who was hit by pitch. Cody was picked off at 2nd for the first out of the inning with AJ making the 2nd out with a KO on an outside pitch. Ryan and Logan scored with singles by Alex and Kel who both scored later in the inning with a shot single by Tristan. Diego made the last out with a fielder's choice to second base.

Our last run came on an error single by Liam to the second baseman, Liam ended up stealing 2nd, 3rd, and home on a pass ball to score our final run.

GAME 2 DETAILS: DON'T GET OVER CONFIDENT! but we did score 17 runs on their 10 plus errors.

Next weekend we will see an upper level of play from the L.A. teams.

TEAM EASTON IS REBUILT!  Our first practice was a huge success with a ton of potential both in skills and attitude, everyone gave a 100% effort last practice, keep it up! 

TEAM EASTON is rebuilding for the fall season!    Stay Tuned! 

SQUAD TAKES A BEATING FROM THE LEGENDS!!! 20-2 & 14 - 4

OUCH!!!!!!

It is tough to be on the losing end of a butt kicking, but sometime that is exactly what you need to get motivated.  The Legends came to play ball, they could  hit everything; they could turn on the inside pitches, take the outside pitches to the opposite field, and wait and explode on a change up. Their fielding was near flawless with only 3 4 errors during both games. The second game for us showed me that mentally we could rebound and not be affected by the beating we took. It is a strange thing in baseball when everyone starts TALKING, things happen, people start to move, and your head becomes a part of the game.

What  do we need to work on??

1.  Basics; throw the ball under pressure, catch the ball under pressure, believe it or not, we had too many bad throws and dropped balls that could have been outs.

2. When coach says I WANT AN OUT, it means lets get the easy out at first base, not to  get a runner in a pickle and let them end up scoring anyways.

3   Pitchers; identify when we have a runner on 3rd and 1st, dont go after the runner on 1st,

4.  when we are on 1st and 3rd, don't get picked off of 1st on a decoy throw to 3rd

 5.  First step is BACK  on  a fly ball

6. ALWAYS SLIDE UNLESS YOU HERE A COACH SAY "UP"

7. EAT IT after one bad throw

8.  BLOOPERS over ss ?  decides whose ball is it, ss or center

9. BATTING;  AT this age it is all about hittable pitches, what does that mean, it means YOU ARE SWINGING AT THE NEXT PITCH "UNLESS"  it is absolutely a terrible pitch, in the dirt, or way outside, or above our head,    WHY DO WE SWING AT HITTABLE PITCHERS, 1 it takes the guess work out of deciding whether a pitch is a ball or strike,

 10 WHAT TO EXPECT?  from a coaching standpoint, we will pull a pitcher a lot sooner than we have been, we will let a pitcher who is HOT stay in longer, we will pull kids from the game who are distracted and not paying attention,

11;  this is a quick partial list, any other thought email to me at patrickjsilva@yahoo.com

12;  no time for spelling or grammer checks on the above.

There's a New Team in Town!

Thanks to Ronnie Garcia, Squad Baseball has 5 talented new players to add to the roster. Steven, A.J., Victor, Ethan, and Nano.

SQUAD BEATS RC BULLDOGS !

Today we played down a level but were still able to pull out two wins. Everyone contributed to the pitching, we had 9 pitchers pitch today and when it comes to tournament play the depth of your pitchers in 3 days will normally determine how well you do.

SQUAD BEATS MONTEBELLO BREWERS 10-2.

We had played the Brewers in 3 prior games in which we lost each time by a substantial amount of runs. This time it was a different story with the strong pitching of Steven , Tristan and A.J. we were able to shut on the Brewers.  Squad jumped out to a 4-2 lead off the grand slam of  A.J.There were some good heads up baseball with a 5-4 out to get the lead runner, a throw out at home plate from the outfield, and just all around heads up ball. Our catchers, Ethan and Diego had less than 7 pass balls and our pitchers had less that 7 wild pitches.

Squad takes on tough teams:

Thanks for everyone making the Pasadena games. We played 2 very good teams, the Montebello Brewers and Playhard Baseball Academy Sand Gnats.

We played solid ball against 2 good teams. We had very little mental errors which is huge in comparison to our first few games. Keep up the good work.

SQUAD IMPROVES 333% IN TOURNAMENT PLAY

We played solid baseball this weekend. After playing the Dodgers I was talking with their coaches and they both commented on what an unbelievable improvement we made in such a short time. If you remember they spanked us the first time we played them 24-1. We handed the Cobras 3 runs during the first game on errors that we do not normally make. If we get rid of the simple errors we end up winning that game thanks to the bases loaded triple by Chase.

Monterey Park provided a great place to play ball after leaving the howling winds of Highland.   Squad jumped out to a 5-0 after the 1st inning while getting all 9 batters to the plate.  Tristan was able to zip the Angels with 2 complete innings of pitching while allowing only 4 walks and the the same time striking out 3 of the Angel Batters. Logan had a nice 6-3 play off the hot bat of the Angel's #2 batter.

Squad was only able to put up one more on the board in the top of the 2nd. After beating a single out to SS, Sam stole second and was on his way to stealing 3rd when slugger Soto popped up one to the SS when then doubled up Sam at second for a double play. Sorry kids, that was my coaching error.  However, Chase got on with a shot to LF and later scored that inning.

We had our own good play in the 2nd with Diego stopping the runner at 3rd with a throw to Sam at 3rd who got the runner in a pickle and eventually got tagged out back second base by Alex.

In the 3rd, Troy Foster, who was taking James spot for the day came in to pitch. After striking out the first batter and getting the second batter to ground out, Troy allowed a hit and then picked of the runner at 1st base who was sleeping.

In the top of the 3rd Tristan hit a 2 run homer with Logan on first to put the Squad  up 8-0. John had a nice steal home after the Angels went after the runner at 2nd on a 1st and walk situation.

We had some outs at home plate. I would rather be aggressive on the bases and take my chances with the other team getting us out every once in a while. In the long run we will score a ton more runs than any outs that may be had against us. So keep on running boys.  Colby had a nice heads up steal of homeplate after he was getting the extra lead off of third when the pitcher released the ball. It was this xtra jump that allowed him to score when our other runners were held up.

In the fourth, Squad put up 5 more runs while allowing the Angels 3.

Alex came into pitch the 5th inning after a long absence from the mound. After loading the bases Alex was able to regroup and get the KO on the next batter, field a hard hit ball back to pitcher and threw to the catcher (Diego) for the force at the plate for out number 2, and finally KO ing the last batter to end the game.

THINGS TO WORK ON::

1.  missed signs for a fake bunt

2. our jumps on stealing are late

3. recognize when to do a delayed steal

4. 3rd baseman backing up pitcher when first baseman is throwing ball back to pitcher  and the same for the pitcher

5. Catchers need to recognize that with runner on 3rd we need the 3rd strike to be caught, if not, TAG the runner.

6. First basemen, on a dropped third strike all you have to do is TAG the base, not the runner, there is no pickle between home and 1st base.

7. Pitchers must cover home plate on pass ball.

8. Stop the bleeding, do not throw the ball behind the lead rurnner, and stop throwing after  one bad throw 

10/21/07 SQUAD WINS 10-9 IN THE BOTTOM OF THE LAST INNING AGAINST THE SC REDWINGS !!

One of the major goals as a team is to eliminate errors, last Sunday we did exactly that. We improved on our stealing jumps, reading signs, fake bunts, real bunts, sliding, outfielders backing up the plays and moving, and our throwing.

     In the first inning SC had a runner on second with one out, the batter hit a ball to Sam who "checked" the runner and threw to first for the out. In the bottom of the first Logan had some heads up baserunning, he was on second base when SC went for the pick, Logan delayed steal to 3rd and took home on the overthrow into centerfield. At the end of one, 5-1.

     In the second SC hit a shot over James' head in left, James hustled to the ball and got it into second quickly to hold the runner. Colby got on with a drop-in flyball over 2nd baseman's head for a single, he then stole 2nd and 3rd while "looking" for the ball after each slide.

     After 3, Squad led 8-2, however, SC brought in their #1 pitcher trying to shut us down. He was able to get a couple of KO's but we scored one in the 4th, after SC scored 5 in the top of the 4th. 

     Going into the top of the 5th we led SC by 2, they were able to tie the game 9-9 with the top of the line up coming up in the bottom of the 5th.

    Sam led off with a single off the glove of the SS, he stole 2nd, with Sam taking a big lead, Diego laid down a perfect bunt and was safe by a hair at first.  Our big stick was up and after hitting a triple his previous at bat on an inside pitch SC decided to throw Chase low and away. Chase ko'ed but took off to first on the dropped 3rd strike, SC went after the out at 1st but forgot about Sam at 3rd who aggressively stole home for the win.

  WHAT DO WE NEED TO WORK ON?

   1)  The next level in team development, over and above the individual skills needed to play the game, is game defense positional play.  (a)This means that once the ball is put in play EVERYONE has a place to "move to" based on where the ball is hit  (b) next, EVERYONE has a place to "move to" based on where the ball is thrown (c) and finally EVERYONE has to ANTICIPATE the place to move to in case the ball is missed or overthrown.

   2)  STOP THE BLEEDING;  Hold the ball and stop all plays after a bad throw. We do not want to see an overthrow to 1st with the runner then taking second on the overthrow, and then we make a bad throw to 2nd with the runner going to 3rd, and then we make a bad throw to 3rd with the runner then scoring.( we saw this last game)Stop the play and hold the runner at 2nd.

10-7-07   SQUAD WINS 9-4!! Today we beat the Boyle Heights Dodgers, a very talented team from the L.A. area. 

(PLEASE MAKE OCTOBER  PAYMENTS)

Squad jumped out in front 2-1 by the end of the first inning with a lead off single by Sam and a walk by Diego. Soto scored on a deep fly ball by Chase with the inning ending with a hard hit ground out by Alex.

Ryan allowed 3 runs during his two innings of pitching while notching 2 strike outs  looking!  James had some good defensive play in left field, he was on the move and backing up 3rd base on the attempted steals.

The top of the 2nd produced two more runs by Ryan and Tristan who reached base on a walk and hit-by-pitch. Colby came up with clutch bloop over SS's head to get 2 RBI's.

John had two outstanding plays at the plate for the day that stopped the Dodgers rally dead in its tracks.

The SQUAD was held scoreless in the 3rd but were able to tack on 2 more runs with a 2RBI single by Alex which scored Diego and Chase.

A new sheriff arrived in town today, Tristan, he shut down the opponents in the 3rd with 3 straight strike outs after allowing a lead off double. Tristan did it again in the 4th with 3 strike outs, 1,2, 3.

In the 5th, Colby led off with single to the 3-4 hole This was followed by John reaching 1st on a dropped 3rd strike and a walk by Logan (way to keep your head in the game John) With 2 outs Sam came through with a 2RBI single to make the game 8-3.

Chase came in to finish the game by pitching the 5th and 6th inning. He was able to strike out the first batter and then a bang-bang play by Diego who fielded a grounder at 1st base, tag the base and fired home to John who made a great tag on an aggressive runner trying to score from third.

The 6th inning put one more run on the board with a lead off shot up the middle for a single by Alex followed by a shot triple by Ryan over left fielder's head. With the score 9-3 at this time Chase took the mound in the 6th. After a strike out and a 4-3 ground out from Alex to Tristan, Chase struck out the last batter looking to end the game.

WHAT WE NEED TO WORK ON FROM TODAY'S GAME.

1. late jumps on our steals

2. missing signals from coaches

3. not tagging up

4. fake bunts, real bunts

5. not sliding when we need to

6. getting in pickles when trying to steal

7. not running to 1st on dropped 3rd strike

8. stealing home when the back stop is soooo close

9. going after the runner at 2nd when there is a runner at 3rd

10. ss and 2nd not backing up the pitcher on every throw

11. right field not backing up 1st base

12. catcher throwing to 2nd base with runner on 3rd (without a signal from coach).

13. be on time to games, our pre-game warm ups consist of 1 hour of pre-planned batting , grounders, fly balls. When I don't have every one there on time it makes it difficult to be efficient with what we need to cover.

SUCCESS:  Last weekend we had a 100% improvement on our mental game.  I saw ballplayers who were ready, paying attention, looking for the next play, looking to steal,  taking quality swings at the plate, and most importantly CONFIDENCE!

OUR FIRST GAME was against the Rebels from Temecula, they are also a new team like us.  It was a good game.  We had some quality pitching, good catching, great throws, and plenty of hustle.

OUR SECOND GAME was against the Brewers from Montebello, they are part of an organization with teams from 9U  to 18U.  We played a great game but they happened to come out on top that game.

GAMES AGAINST THE WALLBANGERS:  This team has been together for some time. They just returned from 8U Nationals. As you could see they came ready to play ball, they had GREAT mechanical skills with each player being solid in the catch and throw department.

However, Squad Baseball came to play also. We succeeded in rising to a new level in all areas, baserunning, picking up signs, being aggressive on the bases, being aggressive at the plate,  and very few mental errors.

I look forward to practice this Friday with an eye on improving this weekend.

9/30/07   Alex turned 9 today, Happy Birthday buddy!  Today's practice was exceptional.  After warmups we focused on 4 different types of throwing and footwork drills for 40 minutes, -basic catch/relays/ snap catch throw/  goofy foot.

We then moved onto Skills & Drills, we had two stations of cross fire, the triangle outfield drill and the long toss outfield catch.

Next was Baserunning; we worked on 1st and 3rd offense/ stealing off the pitchers foot movement and 3rd and walk offense.

Positional Skills was next; Coach Ed worked the catchers developing their blocking skills while teaching them the correct body positioning in order to avoid an injury. We also worked with the pitchers developing their pick-off moves and finally we work with the infielders using the FLAT glove to promote soft hands.

Last and not least was Team Skills with Game Situations;  in 40 minutes we only were able to cover 3 situations which we grew into near perfections. Nobody on -nobody out/everbody moving.  Nobody on - bunt defense. 1st and 3rd defense using 3 different types of scenarios. Expect this to grow to 9 options as you get older.

Thanks to, Marcel , Ed, Chris, and Dave, without their help today we would not have been able to accomplish the GREAT practice we had today. 

FOCUS